


Home Lies Here

by shyfoxes



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Keith's Dad lives, Keith's Wolf (Voltron) - Freeform, Lots of Potted Plants, Mentions of Allura and Coran - Freeform, Power Rangers 2017 Inspired, Relying on Each Other, Sharing Feelings, Short Fics, Team Bonding, Team Fluff, Team as Family, Teambuilding, being vulnerable
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-20
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-06-30 01:05:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15740988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shyfoxes/pseuds/shyfoxes
Summary: Keith learns that home isn't just a place, but it can be people.-Power Rangers 2017 AU-ish. Where Keith bears his soul, and his friends take it upon themselves to become his family.





	Home Lies Here

**Author's Note:**

> I wonder if I should do more of this AU...

Keith watched the fire crackling, the chilly night breeze biting at his ears as he burrowed deeper into the thick fabric of his red flannel jacket. Across and around him were those weirdos he’d met running around the desert - met when they’d discovered a giant alien warship shaped like a cat. His throat felt itchy with the want to talk even as his mind warned darkly that he didn’t owe them a sob story, didn’t owe them a shred of himself. 

He glanced up to where Hunk was humming quietly under his breath, passing around styrofoam cups of cocoa tea. Pidge gladly cradled it in her hands, breathing against it until her glasses fogged up. Lance laughed a little to his side, and Pidge grinned back, a little sheepish. Next to Hunk, Shiro was trying to subtly ask Hunk for another cup. 

All this time, training like hell, making no headway and pissing off an alien princess galaxies away, but tiredly appearing without fail by hologram everyday to train them. Sometimes Keith resented her, other times he watched the way she slumped when they weren’t looking, head bowed, felt the desperation of her voice.

_“To wake the Blue Lion and the others, you must work as one,”_ Princess Allura said.

Keith sighed. Fuck it.

“Allura said that we have to learn to trust each other. Right? Maybe we should...get to know each other.”

A hum of agreement went around the group, all of them tensely looking at each other. Keith squared his shoulders, brows drawing down as he stared out at all of them. Familiar flare of indignance in him.

“I’m serious!” He said.

Lance cracked a tiny grin, the shadows under his eyes apparent by the flicker of campfire. “All right, then, Mr. Serious, why don’t you start us off?”

Keith flared his nostrils and scowled. It was just another challenge, Keith reminded himself. Just one more obstacle, one more thing he could climb over. Push forward. Keith ducked his head.

“I live out in a shack,” Keith started.

Four pairs of eyes looked to him. Keith swallowed, feeling the itch to run under his skin, at his heels. He was scared. Part of him wanted to be angry in response, and maybe that’s why he was always so angry in the first place. He pressed forward.

“It’s just my dad and me,” Keith continued. “We don’t have anyone but the two of us.”

Keith grinned. “My dad is the best. He can fix anything, build anything.” He glanced up at Hunk. “You two would get along.” A part of him warmed to see how Hunk seemed to glow at the praise. 

Keith looked to his shoes again, hands bunched together, fingers tangling. Something stuck in his throat, clogged there, tried to seal everything shut. He breathed a little too harshly out of his nose. No matter how he swallowed, he couldn’t dislodge it. No one rushed him.

“My dad’s sick. He tries to act like he isn’t, but we both know better.” Keith twisted his hands together tighter. Horribly, Keith’s voice turned wet, words sticky and bitter, heavy like rainfall.“I do my best for him. However I can.”

Keith breathed. “I’m scared. I’m not always home. I - I don’t want to wake up one day, Dad won’t.”

Someone, maybe Shiro, whispered his name quietly. Keith hadn’t realized when his vision had started blurring.

“If he goes.” Keith swallowed. “ _When_ he goes...it’ll just be me. And that’s scares me more than anything.”

He looked up at the others, at Hunk, Shiro, Lance, and Pidge. He grinned, giving a short laugh. “I think being around you guys makes me better. I don’t feel so alone.” 

Lance’s leg bounced. He chewed on his lips, nodding. “Let’s share secrets. Let’s just let it all out. I wanna feel closer to you guys.” He smiled, and then all of them, even Keith couldn’t help smiling back. “I’ll go next.”

Something landed in Keith’s lap. When he looked down, it was a bag of m&ms, the wrapper kind of wrinkled. When he looked up, it was to Pidge’s smiling face. He grinned back, tearing open the bag and stuffing his face full of a handful of chocolate. He looked to Lance, as they all did, waiting for him to gather himself. 

In the morning when the sun had risen, and they'd sleepily rose to their feet, stumbling, and grinning at each other, Keith's chest bloomed. They flung their arms around each other's shoulders, drawing into a circle. Shiro yawned, setting them all off, and tiredly they laughed about it. Exhausted and achy, Keith looked around him, calm to the core. He wasn't alone. 

He wasn't alone.

-

Keith woke up to incessant knocking. His bare feet hit the floor, toe tapping against Kosmo’s toy bone. At the floor, his dog was growling low in his throat, ears perked and eyes narrowed. A small angry yip escaped him. Quietly, Keith shushed the dog, rising up to stand and made his way to the front of the shack, Kosmo hot on his heels. Keith peeked into his father’s room as he passed, relieved he was still resting. 

“Who the hell would even come out here,” Keith muttered to himself.

Something like snickering and low whispers filtered in. Keith squinted and opened the door. He had to blink twice, unsure if he was still dreaming or not. He looked down at Kosmo, who looked just as confused, then back at his teammates standing there at his door - carrying potted plants?

Keith furrowed his brows. “Uhhh, guys? What the heck?”

Hunk shouldered his way in, rapidly firing off words Keith’s sleep addled brain wasn’t sure he was keeping up with. “Heyy, Keith, buddy, think you can hold onto this for me? Thanks! I’ve gotta go get something from Shiro’s truck.”

Hunk grinned and shoved the plant he was holding into Keith’s hands, before turning around and heading back out. Pidge took that moment to slip her way in, weaving past Keith, and into the living room. She deposited her own plant, a big aloe plant, onto the low table and turned to Kosmo, her small hand offering him a biscuit. Like a traitor, Kosmo ate the biscuit up, sniffing around Pidge’s pockets for more.  Lance and Shiro took it as a cue to also invite themselves in. When they’d dropped some plants off into the house, they turned around and went back out the door. Hunk came back, a few more under his arms, settling them down by the ratty couch.

“Wait, what’s -” Keith tried, floundering, helplessly still holding the plant.

“Be careful not to drop those, dude. Shiro’s mom grew those herself,” Pidge told him. Kosmo was waggling a foot as Pidge scratched under his chin.

“Piiidge!” Lance whined. “Stop playing with Keith’s dog and come help! At least grab the food from the front seat.”

“Food?” Keith repeated. “What food?”

“We brought food. You have a pit out back right? We thought we’d come and cook something up. Meet your dad,” Shiro said in passing. He took the plant from Keith’s hands and set it down by Pidge’s aloe. He pushed at Keith’s shoulders and guided him to the truck. “You might as well help since Pidge won’t.”

Pidge squawked. “Not true! I’m helping!”

The bed of Shiro’s truck was overflowing with plants, many different types, and each overflowing with green. On the side of the truck read “Shirogane Gardens” with a rose striking behind it almost like a blade. Keith thought it was kind of cool. With a long suffering sigh, Keith gathered some plants into his hand and followed the others into depositing it in his shack. By the time they’d just about finished, Keith’s dad was shuffling out of his room, eyes bugging.

“Akira, what the hell is goin’ on?” His father said. 

Keith sheepishly shrugged his shoulders, unsure of how to even start. All around them were potted plants, layers upon layers of green overflowing. His - friends were flitting around putting them along shelves and on tables, turning them this way and that. Only Hunk wasn’t helping, busy chopping up vegetables and whatever else in Keith’s little kitchen. To the corner, Kosmo was happily curled up in a patch of sun, his head shaded under a big green leaf. Keith took a quick look around, wondering how they’d managed his home seemed to flourish more than it ever had in years. Keith cleared his throat.

“Hey, dad. Uhh, meet my friends?” Keith awkwardly said. 

The others paused then, turning to hold a hand up in greeting and cheerfully greet Keith’s dad back. Keith’s dad floundered for a moment (and Keith could see where he got it from), mumbling out a greeting. They quickly introduced themselves, still fiddling with the plants.

“Friends,” Keith’s dad repeated, weighing the words in his mouth, the same way Keith was in his head. He gave a snicker. “You’ll have to excuse my appearance, kids. A -  _ Keith _ didn’t tell me yall were coming over.”

“To be fair, Keith didn’t know we were coming over,” Shiro said, grinning a little embarrassed. “It was kind of a surprise.”

“Oh?” Dad said, his brow raised.

“Yep! Keith told us you guys were all alone out here, so we figured we’d come and brighten up the place a bit. Maybe have brunch together?” Lance added in. “If that’s okay.”

Keith’s dad beamed then, propping himself against the doorway with a giant grin. “I’m not one to ever turn down food, mind. Gotta be better than the slop Keith and I whip up between us.”

Keith frowned, petulant. “Sausage and beans ain’t slop, dad. It’s good if you at least have seasoning!”

His dad held his hands up, doing nothing to hide his laugh. “All right, all right, no need to class me in front of your friends here. Why don’t you help ‘em out while I clean myself up, huh? I wanna hear how yall managed to befriend my son.”

“Only if we get to use that pit out back!” Hunk called after him.

His dad laughed, a full bodied sound that Keith had sorely missed these past few months, loud and powerful, even as his father’s hands shook just a bit. Kosmo stirred, then, jumping up to trail after his father. “All yours, boy! Just get Keith to light the thing up.”

Keith didn’t know he was still staring at the spot his father had been in until Hunk had called his name. He turned to his friend who jabbed a finger towards the back of the shack. 

“You coming?” 

Keith smiled, starting off towards the back. His feet felt light, head raised and clear, for once, as he lead Hunk out back, picking up the box of matches on his way out. They chatted as Keith brought the pit to life, joking as they went back and forth, the delicious smell of cooking pork between them. Eventually, Keith’s dad and the others filed out, propping open lawn chairs and settling down with soda cans in their hands, propped up all together. They shared chips and dip, slices of pastries Lance had brought along with him. 

Pidge had disappeared at one point and brought back her telescope with the promise of mapping out constellations when the sun dipped down and the stars twinkled on. His father was flushed with life, tired looking at times, but roaring with energy to regale his friends with embarrassing stories of Keith as a child, and his time causing mischief in town. Shiro matched him at times, bragging out beating his record with a grin that brought a laugh out of his father. They talked about the old hoverbike Keith and his dad had been meaning to fix up, Hunk chiming in about what it could need. When his plate got too empty, Lance was already shoveling food back onto it.

When the sky turned pink, the scream of locusts and the blinking lights of peenie wallie’s crackling on, Keith sat back in his chair and looked out around him. It’d been a long time since he and his father had used the pit, not with his father feeling so ill that some days he couldn’t even be bothered to move. Here and now, though, Keith almost couldn’t recognize his home. Not with the constant noise of voices, and the smiling faces. Hell, he almost didn’t recognize his own dad, looking up at the stars in that same wistful way he always did when Keith was a child, like he was waiting for something. This time, he was murmuring, smiling up and looking at peace. 

Keith set his plate of meat scraps down for Kosmo, and let himself breathe. He didn’t think he’d ever love his home more than right here and now.

**Author's Note:**

> Peeniewallies are fireflies.
> 
> nothing is edited. not really except some typos. posted as is.
> 
>  
> 
> RIGHT. So I’m back on my Power Rangers 2017 BS and I’m getting so emotional over their relationships with each other. I’m also cycling through each one, and right now I’m all about Zack. Zack, man, he tears me up inside. I was headcanoning to myself how the other rangers would totally come over to his trailer and spend time with him and his mom and just make them feel loved and happy and make everything full of life. Then, ofc, I was like...but what if -?
> 
> I still really like the idea of PR and I’m prob gonna reuse the idea and make PR17 fic of that happening. But for now, I made my own AU :D.
> 
> Here, Allura and Coran are only able to communicate via hologram through the Blue Lion, whom the five of them stumble across. (And not b/c Shiro got abducted by aliens). From there its very Power Rangers 2017. They can’t unlock their bayards, and by extension the Blue Lion, until they’re acting as a team. They have to trust each other and love each other like a family. And when that happens, they can unlock the Blue Lion and then make their way around the universe finding all the others, and then make their way to the Castle of Lions.
> 
> But the emphasis I wanted was on unity and family <3\. So, sorry no pairings in this meager little AU. 
> 
> (Well, maybe some BG Adashi, but that’s it, really).
> 
> Keith’s still half alien, but his dad is alive still (for now, but he’s got a disease). A long standing headcanon of mine is that Akira is Keith’s ethnic name. In school and stuff, he’s known as Keith. At home, with his dad, he’s Akira (and Keith, but mostly Akira).
> 
> So, for this scene, it follows in after the movie where they bared their souls to each other. The team, after hearing from Keith, decide they’re gonna step in and be there for him. Following scenes would be them doing the same for each other and building up that bond and etc etc.
> 
> Anyway, that’s what I got! Please watch Power Rangers 2017 (the movie)! Billy is the heart of Mamazord!


End file.
